Archive for January 2009

Defense Systems magazine, which covers DOD, has a new editor. 1105 Government Information Group editorial director David Rapp announced this morning that Wyatt Kash will add that magazine to his duties. Kash, of course, is the editor in chief of Government Computer News.

As part of that change, Sean Gallagher, who has been leading Defense Systems for the past year, will be leaving 1105 GovInfo, although Rapp said that he will continue to be a contributor to the magazine. Read Gallagher’s blog post about his career change here.

What the job entails isn’t completely clear to me, but I gather that she plans on using Web tools to let, well, citizens participate in the Obama White House…

Per her LinkedIn bio, she’s also worked on Google Finance and Google’s Open Social initiative. And prior to joining Google (GOOG) in 2003 (which means she came on pre-IPO and is fully vested, if you’re doing the math), she was at Yahoo (YHOO) as a production manager and worked in Yahoo Finance.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt may not be interested in the new federal CTO post but a member of his team is headed to Washington, D.C.: business development exec Katie Jacobs Stanton is joining the Obama administration as “director of citizen participation,” MediaMemo reported and we have confirmed. As Peter Kafka notes, the title doesn’t clearly define what Stanton’s responsibilities will be when her new job begins in March. But given her background at Google, she worked on the search giant’s election team, on its Open Social initiative, and helped launch Google Finance in 2006. She likely will be involved in the development of online tools that help Americans get more involved with what’s going on at the White House. Stanton joined Google in 2003, early enough to be in on the IPO; she previously served as a production manager at Yahoo.

Stanton’s appointment is in line with the administration’s efforts during the campaign and transition to reach out to supporters through digital means: the weekly fireside chats via YouTube, the Twitter account, as well as the launch of Change.gov while Obama was president-elect. But Stanton and other tech-savvy new hires may find it more difficult to do their jobs effectively in the coming months, as they contend with White House technology policies that are more restrictive than participatory. (Much like Obama himself did during the struggle to keep his Blackberry).

We’ve been seeing all sorts of appointments coming out of various agencies as many key spots in agencies start to get filled.

What’s interesting is that we haven’t heard much of anything about the much-discussed — at least much-discussed outside official Washington — Obama CTO post. That has prompted some to ask what is going on with the Obama CTO.

I’m hearing that there is some discussion about the role of the CTO as compared to the OMB administrator of e-government and information technology, the post most recently held by Karen Evans, of course. Some people have suggested that the Obama CTO job could end up being… well, much ado about nothing. Others think that they may do essentially what they have done with the chief performance officer — double up on an existing job. In other words, they might name the OMB administrator of e-government and IT also as the CTO. that seems to be a missed opportunity to me. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on how you would actually organize this.

I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with the Open Government Directive.

An interesting read: David Kralik, the director of internet strategy for American Solutions and the manager of its Silicon Valley office, wrote a column for HuffingtonPost, where he suggested that the CTO should be thought of as the chief transformation officer… and that the person should have no government experience.

The appointment of a CTO may very well be one of the most important hires in this new administration if it is thought of as an opportunity for enacting real change in how the government functions. For that reason, maybe we should think of the CTO instead as the “Chief Transformation Officer.”

Elsewhere… NextGov/GovExec’s Bob Brewin is “picking up strong signals” that Team Obama is looking at retired Radm. Robert “Willie” Williamson to succeed John Grimes as assistant secretary of Defense for networks and information integration, also known as the DOD CIO. Grimes is staying on as DOD CIO until a new person is selected, insiders tell the DorobekInsider.

And over at VA, where Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki is now setting up his office, there are a number of names floating around — including Roger Baker, who the Washington Post’s In the Loop column suggests, could be tapped for “chief innovation officer.”

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, a retired four-star Army general, appears to be stacking his sub-Cabinet with fellow veterans. We’re hearing buzz that Shinseki will name W. Scott Gould, who served in Iraq as a naval intelligence reservist, as his deputy secretary. Gould, a former assistant secretary of commerce who once served in the Clinton White House, is a vice president at IBM Global Business Services.

Meanwhile, Shinseki is eyeing disabled Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth as assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs. Duckworth, whom Obama had considered for the top VA post, currently runs the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. A former congressional candidate, Duckworth had been mentioned as a candidate for the Senate seat Obama vacated. After losing both her legs in combat, Duckworth was an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy.

Sources say Shinseki also could tap Roger Baker, who served on Obama’s transition team and is a longtime information technology executive in government and private industry, for a top VA post, perhaps as chief innovation officer.

One of the biggest obstacles to some of the using some of the government 2.0 tools are the government’s legal and policy frameworks, some of which were formulated long before there was an Internet. The National Academy of Public Administration’s Collaboration Project is taking a big step toward helping agencies deal with these sticky issues.

On Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris, we recently spoke to Marcus Peacock, who at the time was the deputy administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency. Peacock and former EPA CIO Molly O’Neill, before they left, got started a parallel government 2.0 comment process around air quality standards. We spoke to Peacock and O’Neill about the process. One of the things he told us was that many of the government law that at the time were designed to ensure public comment today actually prevent agencies from reaching out to encourage a broader public comment. The laws, for example, require public comment. Agencies post rules and regulations in the Federal Register — or on Regulations.gov — and then people can comment. Those comments are assessed and posted. In the end, you don’t get an open, transparent debate about the process. Instead, you get a lot of individual comments unrelated to one another. And it has seemed that there wasn’t an alternative.

Peacock and O’Neill, creatively, aren’t letting those laws prevent the EPA from trying something new. Instead, they are running a parallel process — following the old way and creating a new way.

My suggestion has been to open up regulations to a wiki — some broad way to allow people to change the rule in a way that they think would improve it. In other words, don’t just comment — make it better. We’re still a few years away from that.

(A historical aside: Dee Lee deserves a foresight award. More than a decade ago, Dee Lee, who I believe was the administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, also ran a parallel comment process for a rule allowing people to comment on other people’s comments. It was very innovative for the 1990s. It’s only taken a decade for us to get back to this point.)
NAPA to the rescue

The document below represents a rough draft of the research agenda that will guide the Collaboration Project going forward. It is a living document and we are always looking for new additions to this list. In reviewing it, please consider some of these questions:

What are the issues on this list that resonate with you the most? Is there anything you see missing?

Have you or anyone you know had success in meeting these challenges? Do you have any best practices to share?

How, if at all, has your agency altered policies to enable better collaboration?

What are the actions the next administration and Congress could take to increase collaboration and the use of the Web 2.0 suite of tools?

If you have something to contribute, please don’t hesitate to contact us and send it in, or just use the comments feature at the bottom of this page !

As we told you earlier, the Federal Web Managers Council has created a similar but different document that lists the federal government social media challenges — perceived or real — and some possible solutions. You can see that document here. (Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Jason Miller spoke to GSA’s Bev Godwin about this document. You can hear that discussion here.) My challenge to the Federal Web Managers Council is that they often kicked the ball further down the field, recommending that there needs to be policy developed to solve some of these problems. We all certainly agree that there are new policies necessary in many cases, but my recommendation would be to offer short term solutions — what can agencies actually do — today — to resolve those challenges. The longer term policy development can still go on, but there is so much to be learned by doing, and I get concerned that agencies will avoid ‘doing’ because of the policy limbo. That being said, the Federal Web Managers Council deserves a whole heap of credit for this marvelous document. It is an excellent and very valuable document and they deserve credit for pulling it together.

In the late 1990s, CQ moved aggressively into the online world, turning CQ.com into a powerful tool for tracking legislation moving through Congress. CQ also publishes Governing magazine, which covers state governments.

01.28.09 9:15p ET UPDATE: I have a number of friends over at CQ. The owners had a meeting with staff today, during which they were told that the brokers had recommended that they not tell staff until after the sale was complete, but they decided to keep their employees informed. Wow — wonderfully novel. It seems unlikely that CQ would be bought by a private equity or venture capital firm because of the tight credit market these days. It will be interesting to see what happens… and how CQ evolves.

My philosophy is simple: we will continue to satisfy our customer’s needs through business excellence, which will be delivered by employees who are dedicated, well-trained and excited to go to work each day. I have felt that way since I began working for GSA as a real estate intern 38 years ago.

The phrase is over-used, but I believe this is a defining moment for GSA. The President’s economic recovery plan and priorities include investing in federal infrastructure, greening the federal government and using Internet technology to simplify citizen access to official information and services. We are leaders in these areas. And we have much more to contribute in other areas as well. I know you are as eager as I am to continue to grow the GSA business and enhance the GSA reputation.

There has been a lot of buzz around the appointment of new GSA Acting Administrator Paul Prouty, who most recently had been the assistant regional administrator for GSA’s Public Building Service’s Rocky Mountain Region.

Here is the note that was circulated among GSA officials:

PAUL PROUTY NAMED ACTING GSA ADMINISTRATOR: President Obama has named Paul F. Prouty, Assistant Regional Administrator, Public Buildings Service (PBS), Rocky Mountain Region, to serve as the Acting Administrator for GSA.Prouty joined GSA in 1971 as a Real Estate Intern in Denver, CO and worked to become Director of the Real Estate Division in 1988. He subsequently served as the Director of the Colorado Service Center and as the Assistant Regional Administrator for PBS in the New England Region.Prouty received the GSA Distinguished Service Award in 1987 and 1998, and was named the Outstanding Federal Executive by the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board in 1997. Former Acting Administrator, James A. Williams, will return to his previous position as the Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service.

Federal News Radio 1500 AM has put in requests to chat with Mr. Prouty. He told me that GSA would “make it happen” as soon as he gets settled in.

That being said, most people don’t believe that Prouty is going to be the permanent GSA administrator — otherwise he would have just been nominated. The most often mentioned name these days is Martha Johnson, who was the GSA chief of staff under the wildly popular — and wildly successful — GSA Administrator David Baram, who served during the Clinton administration. Johnson was on the GSA transition “parachute” team and GSAers say hear that Johnson and Prouty are close — or at least know each other.

Prouty, however, only has PBS experience — no experience with acquisition. But DCers say he is well liked within PBS.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s resume, if she should be named as the GSA administrator nominee, from her resume on her LinkedIn profile:

Vice President at SRA International
Director at Touchstone Consulting Group
Vice President at Council for Excellence in Government
Vice President at Computer Sciences Corporation

Surprising enough, Jim Williams, the FAS commissioner, seems to teathered with a Doan taint. The former GSA administrator, of course, made the bold move of naming Williams, a career public servant, to what could have been a political post. But some say that Williams is seen as being too supportive of Doan, particularly regarding the now infamous Sun Microsystems GSA schedule contract fiasco. That being said, it will be good to have Williams and his deputy, Tyree Varnado, at the helm of FAS, particularly if Prouty does not have much experience with acquisition and acquisition issues.